ABSTRACT
Before analyze the Yishuv’s policy rescue policy, it is necessary to understand the Zionist decision making process. The Jews’ limited options in response to the Nazis also bear remembering, since, in many ways, the Yishuv’s options were even more limited than the rest of world Jewry’s. The majority of Zionist institutions uncategorically rejected empty, symbolic acts that drew adverse attention to Jews and Zionists but did not offer any real benefits to the Yishuv or to German Jews. Economic, political, and social realities in the Yishuv in addition to the small influence of the World Zionist Organization therefore oriented most Zionists toward what they called constructive aid. The first Zionist institution to respond to the German Jewish crisis was the Va’ad Leumi. Founded in 1920, it was the executive branch of the autonomous Jewish institution, the Knesset Israel. While members of the Zionist establishment were debating most effective means of alleviating German Jewry’s suffering, Zeev Jabotinsky offered an alternative policy.
